TBA 3

Senior Investment has been under the watchful eye of trainer Ken McPeek since he purchased the chestnut Discreetly Mine colt for $95,000 on behalf of Paul Fireman’s Fern Circle Stables at Keeneland’s September 2015 yearling sale.

Not debuting until the summer of 2016, Senior Investment needed four tries to break his maiden, graduating with a 2 ½-length victory going a mile and 70 yards at Fair Grounds Dec. 26 in his final start as a 2-year-old.

Seventh in his first try against winners four weeks later, also at Fair Grounds, Senior Investment was shipped to Oaklawn Park where he dispatched an optional claiming allowance field by three lengths Feb. 18 at 1 1/16 miles. A date against stakes company was next, but he was never in contention finishing sixth behind Kentucky Derby runners Girvin and Patch in the Louisiana Derby (G2).

Just 14 days later, Senior Investment found himself at Keeneland for the 1 1/16-mile Lexington (G3). The late-running sort came with his customary closing kick after trailing all but one horse for six furlongs, rallying after being fanned seven wide at the top of the stretch to win by a head at odds of 11-1.

Jockey

A second-generation rider from Nebraska, 29-year-old Channing Hill made his Triple Crown race debut aboard Fast and Accurate, whose three-race win streak was snapped when 17th in the Kentucky Derby May 6.

Hill follows in the footsteps of his father, Allan Hill, a 33-year veteran of the Nebraska circuit who won 667 races between 1976 and 1999. Channing Hill got his jockey license on his 16th birthday and rode his first race at Agricultural Park in Columbus, Neb., picking up his first winner in 2004 at Iowa’s Prairie Meadows.

Over the years Hill has branched out from his Midwest beginnings to ride primarily in New York, Kentucky and Arkansas. He won a career-high 135 races in 2005 and finished second to Emma-Jayne Wilson in Eclipse Award voting as top apprentice jockey.

Married to trainer Wayne Catalano’s daughter, Shelbi, Hill has won 20 graded stakes including two in Maryland, the Black-Eyed Susan (G2) at Pimlico on Sweet Vendetta and Barbara Fritchie (G2) at Laurel Park with Golden Dawn in 2008.

Hill won his 1,000th career June 24, 2016 at Churchill Downs. He rode Senior Investment to a win in the Lexington (G3) April 15 at Keeneland.

Owner

Fern Circle Stables

Massachusetts native Paul Fireman, 73, is a successful businessman and former CEO of Reebok who has taken his focus into horse racing with Palm Beach Fla.-based Fern Circle Stables.

Fern Circle raced its first horses in 2016 and finished the year with five wins from 16 starters and $224,805 in purse earnings. Through May 3 this year, the stable had won two of 15 races and earned $221,758.

Fireman’s first winner came in his second starter, Honor Thy Father, in an Ellis Park maiden race last July. Perfect Wife gave him his first black-type winner in the $100,000 Trapeze Stakes in November at Remington Park.

Senior Investment gave Fireman and Fern Circle their first graded victory in the Lexington (G3) April 15 at Keeneland.

Fireman got his introduction to racing through his father and an uncle, who both loved and owned horses. His foresight into the increasing popularity of aerobic workouts in the 1980s helped establish Reebok as one of the leading shoe companies in the world. He sold the company to Adidas in 2006 for $3.8 billion and in 2009 founded the investment firm Fireman Capital Partners.

Trainer

Ken McPeek

Born in Arkansas and raised in Lexington, Ky., McPeek has run three horses in the Preakness starting with Tejano Run, who finished ninth in 1995. He was fourth with his other starters, beaten Kentucky Derby favorite Harlan’s Holiday in 2002, and Racecar Rhapsody in 2008.

McPeek, 53, got his start as a hotwalker for Hall of Famer Shug McGaughey in 1984, taking out his trainer’s license the following year with his father, Ron, as his first client. Among his best-known horses are multiple stakes winners Repent, Take Charge Indy and Sarava, who shocked the 2002 Belmont Stakes at odds of 70-1.

In 2005, McPeek stepped away from training to become a bloodstock agent, though he returned to the backside in 2006. During his hiatus, he signed the ticket for Midnight Cry Stable’s purchase of two-time Horse of the Year and Hall of Famer Curlin as a yearling.

McPeek made history in 2012 when Golden Ticket became the first horse to dead heat for victory in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga Race Course. He has won more than 1,500 career races including over six dozen graded stakes, 14 of them in Grade 1 company.